United States, closes the elementary school « donated » from Zuckerberg to the poor communities: « Mossa pro Trump? »

From our correspondent
NEW YORK – Even American primary education pays the price of new political and philanthropic priorities related to the return of Donald Trumpas the announced closure of the Primary School of East Palo Alto, the elementary school opened in 2016, a few kilometers from the headquarters of Facebookthanks to the financial support of Mark Zuckerbergfounder and CEO of Metaand his wife Priscilla Chan.

After eight years of activity and 100 million dollars invested through the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the school will definitively close in the summer of 2026, As he announced on Monday, with a press release on his website, without giving explanations on the reasons. The stop to the educational project marks the end of one of the most representative initiatives born during the season in which the Promotion of the values ​​of diversity, equity and inclusion – The so -called policies of – was at the center of the agenda of many institutions and companies. But today the opposition of the American president has prompted large companies to a progressive demobilization, including the big tech of the Silicon Valley.

The Primary School, which has two campus in disadvantaged areas of the Bay Area di San Francisco with 550 students in totalwas born to offer free and integrated education with health services and family support for children of low -income communities. A project strongly desired by the wife of the founder of Facebook, a pediatrician, together with the educator Meredith Liu, imagining a model capable of dealing with the structural barriers that brake the development of children in marginalized communities, thanks to a pioneering formula.

According to some parents, incredulous in front of the sudden news, The closure of the two school campus is linked directly to the disengagement of Zuckerberg, Today worried by the results of the antitrust process that involves Meta, underway in Washington, where the entrepreneur at the beginning of March bought a new 23 million house in one of the most exclusive neighborhoods, has revealed political in recent days, now in a phase of political realignment, after years of investments in progressive initiatives. « Mom, the Lord who gave money no longer wants to do it »he told the New York Times The mother of a 6 -year -old boy, reporting that his son had heard him say from a teacher.

The school received around $ 100 million from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative between 2018 and 2024, but was unable to attract additional public or private funding. The Czi Foundation, however, does not completely come out of the scene and will invest 50 million in the next five years in the communities concernedincluding East Palo Alto and San Leandro, where the second campus is located. The funds will serve to create savings accounts for education, to use specialists for the school transition and expand access to kindergarten. In 2025-26 for the first (and last time) the cycle will be completed to the eighth class, with 35 students.